Working on a Condo manager App - 2025

At my previous job one of my significant accomplishments was to create and develop an Airtable database for the company which led to a much more efficient way of task management.

Two years in condo management

I was working for a small, family-run condo management company, where I took on various roles. This allowed me to gain experience in the nitty-gritty tasks and details of condo management from financials to organizing reconstructions and participating in tenders.

During that period, I was independently deepening my knowledge of Airtable. As I consistently look for opportunities to optimize processes I created and proposed a task management template to my boss.

It’s natural for me to dive deeply into the work I do, which allowed me to create the blueprint for the template. However, I also consulted with my colleagues and boss to understand their needs and experiences.

The final version of the Airtable interface I left for them was the result of the collaboration I initiated.

After leaving the company, I decided to test the necessity and usability of my template with other condo managers.

During my work, I also tried to simplify the attendance sheets for the annual general meetings. Read more on Linkedin.

Research in progress

I’m working on my research plan and have already identified the following goals:

• Validating the need for new software
• Identifying the software they already use
• Identifying challenges and pain points
• Identifying the most needed function
• To see if condo managers would invest, and how much

USER RECRUITEMENT:

• Collect public contact information (phone, email) via Google search: közös képviselő, cold-calling, and emailing an online survey.
• Find Facebook groups – send direct messages.
• Search for offline events for condo managers – attend and initiate conversations.

RESEARCH METHODS:

# Online Survey

The survey consists of 13 questions: 6 are yes/no, and 7 require a short or long answer.

# Cold calling hungarian condo management companies

1st round: Called 10 people—8 answered or called back. Offered face-to-face, phone, or online survey; all chose the online survey. 4 condo managers completed it.

# Open card sort

The aim of the card sorting exercise is to optimize the labeling system. The cards list categories of condo managers' tasks, and participants must group them into as few categories as possible without losing their functional purpose.

I asked two friends to sort the cards — one with experience in condo management and one without. It turned out that the number of cards was not usable. During this trial, I also had to clarify the instructions.

Labels serve two important functions in task categorization:

User Clarity: Labels help users understand the type of tasks. In this case, a more detailed labeling system provides greater clarity.

Analytical Insights: Labels offer a retrospective view of the task types condo managers handle. However, an excessive number of labels can make visualizations harder to interpret and conclusions more difficult to draw.

Function flow chart (1st draft)

I created a draft of the application’s function flow, which, of course, requires further research and simplification.